PROPHECIES ABOUT THE END OF THE FIRST COVENANT AGE

The Old and New Testaments are full of prophecy about when the Old Covenant age would end. All of them essentially say it would occur when the Messiah comes.

These next few verses direct from the mouth of Jesus among other things just exactly when the Lord would come. In the lifetimes of some of those standing there that he was speaking to. Some of them wouldn't live that long.

Mark 14:61 ...Again the high priest asked him, Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? 62. And Jesus said, I am: and you will see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.

Matthew 16: 27. For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works. 28: Truly I say to you, There are some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.

Matthew16: 28. Truly I say to you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.

Mark: 9: 1. And he said unto them, Truly I say to you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power.

Luke 9: 26. For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father's, and of the holy angels.27. But I tell you of a truth, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the kingdom of God.

Matthew 25: 64. Jesus says to him, You have said: nevertheless I say to you, After this you will see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.

There are a couple of items worth explaining in these words. The kingdom of God in the earth is spoken of through out the scripture as already existing. Yet here it is spoken of as yet to come. Further than this. Its many earthly promises of freedom, general prosperity, the end of despotic human government and legal human slavery were prophesied to occur in the distant future. Why is this? Very simply because Jehovah the Word of God the king of that kingdom had not yet come as a man. The promise was that the descendant of Abraham and David would rule over that kingdom forever. Jesus did not become the Son of God or the Son of man until he became a man. He laid down the physical attributes of God to do so but took them back when he was raised from the dead. So although he ruled this invisible kingdom in the earth before he became a man. He now rules it according to the promise as the son of David, the descendant of Abraham even though he is and always has been Jehovah the Word of God. So in short the reference to the kingdom of God coming is a reference to its coming with the Son of man as king and the fulfillment of all the prophecy about this. In case the prophecy being emphasized is the end of the Old Covenant Age and the destruction of Jerusalem.

The next verses, by Moses and then Peter referring to them in combination with some others says that when The Prophet comes. Not just any prophet. Whoever does not listen to him will be destroyed. Jesus was that prophet and the destruction of those that did not listen to him came to pass just as Moses insinuated and others directly said.

Deuteronomy 18:15. (Moses speaking) The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet from your midst, one of your brothers, like me; to him you shall hearken; 16. According to all that you desired of the Lord your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not. 17. And the Lord said to me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken. 18. I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brothers, like you, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak to them all that I shall command him. 19. And it shall come to pass, that who ever will not listen to my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.

Acts 3:19. (Peter speaking) Repent therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. 20. And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: 21. Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. 22. For Moses truly said to the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up for you of your brothers, like me; him shall you hear in all things what ever he shall say to you. 23. And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.

In Daniel's prophecy below. Not only was he told exactly when the Messiah would come but that when he did the city and sanctuary would be destroyed.

Daniel 9:24 Seventy weeks are determined on your people and on your holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. 25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem to the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and three score and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. 26 And after three score and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and to the end of the war desolations are determined. 27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the middle of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured on the desolate.

Malachi prophesies about the Messiah and the good news in the rest of that chapter. Then later John the Baptist preceding him and that great and dreadful day of the Lord that would follow. In essence, in these two chapters we get the promise of the Messiah and the good news about the kingdom of God. That as it turns out as far as all the earthly promises was far off in the distance. However when John is mentioned the great and terrible day of the Lord is tied to it. As that turned out. It came to pass in the generation John preached to.

Malachi 3:1 Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the LORD, whom you seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom you delight in: behold, he shall come, said the LORD of hosts. 2 But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appears? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap:......4:5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: 6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

Mathew 17:And his disciples asked him, saying, Why then say the scribes that Elias (Elijah) must first come? 11 And Jesus answered and said to them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things. 12 But I say to you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done to him whatever they wanted. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them. 13 Then the disciples understood that he spoke to them of John the Baptist.

In Joel's prophecy referred to in Acts 2. We see that it is Jesus who received the promise of the Holy Spirit and distributed him among the believers. Tied to that event; the messiah receiving the promised Holy Spirit and pouring Him out on the people of faith in His name. Was a prophecy about the last days. The last days of the Old Covenant age.

Acts 2:1 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. 3 And there appeared to them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat on each of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance......14......You men of Judaea, and all you that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known to you, and listen to my words: 15 For these are not drunken, as you suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. 16 But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; 17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, said God, I will pour out of my Spirit on all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: 18 And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: 19 And I will show wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke: 20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and notable day of the Lord come: 21 And it shall come to pass, that whoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved......29 Men and brothers, let me freely speak to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulcher is with us to this day. 30 Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; 31 He seeing this before spoke of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. 32 This Jesus has God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. 33 Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he has shed forth this, which you now see and hear.

There are numerous other prophecies that say or imply the same thing. These are just some of the common ones. Enough for the purposes of this article.